title: [Case-control study on needle-knife to cut off the medial branch of the lumbar posterior ramus under C-arm guiding for the treatment of low back pain caused by lumbar facet osteoarthritis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the clinical efficacy of needle-knife to cut off the medial branch of the lumbar posterior ramus under C-arm guiding to treat low back pain caused by lumbar facet osteoarthritis.
  
  
  METHODS
  From July 2009 to June 2011, 60 patients with low back pain caused by lumbar facet osteoarthritis were reviewed,including 34 males and 26 females, ranging in age from 39 to 73 years old,averaged 61.9 years old; the duration of the disease ranged from 6 to 120 months, with a mean of 18.9 months. All the patients were divided into two groups, 30 patients (18 males and 12 females, ranging in age from 39 to 71 years old, needle-knife group) were treated with needle-knife to cut off medial branch of the lumbar posterior ramus under C -arm guiding and the other 30 patients(16 males and 14 females, ranging in age from 41 to 73 years old, hormone injection group) were treated with hormone injection in lumbar facet joint under C-arm guiding. The preoperative JOA scores and the scores at the 1st, 12th and 26th weeks after treatment were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Before treatment,the JOA scores between the two groups had no significant difference (P= 0.479); after 1 week of treatment, the JOA scores between the two groups had significant difference (P= 0.040), the improvement rate of hormone injection group was superior than that of the needle-knife group,which were (58.73+/-18.20)% in needle-knife group and (71.10+/-22.19)% in hormone injection group; after 12 weeks of treatment, the JOA scores between the two groups had no significant difference(P=0.569), and the improvement rate between the two groups had no significant difference,which were (50.09+/-19.33)% in the needle-knife group and (48.70+/-18.36)%) in the hormone injection group; after 26 weeks of treatment,the JOA scores between the two groups had significant difference (P=0.000), the improvement rate of hormone injection group was superior than that of the needle-knife group,which were (48.56+/-28.24)% in needle-knife group and (15.62+/-11.23 )% in hormone injection group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using needle-knife to cut off the medial branch of the lumbar posterior ramus could get longer efficacy than hormone injection in the treatment of lumbar facet osteoarthritis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310012, Zhejiang, China.
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Wei-xing
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Wei-Guo
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Qiao-Feng
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Gou-ping
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Wei-min
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055013:Osteoarthritis, Spine / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D013127:Spinal Nerves / Q000601:surgery*